Imported Meat Faces Lockdown Hurdles in China’s Largest City
China’s largest city by population is facing a citywide COVID lockdown nearing two weeks to an upwards of 30 days in length for some residents. The biggest challenge is ensuring these residents have food.
U.S. Meat Export Federation’s Joel Haggard describes the conditions in Shanghai, including the challenge of moving imported meat through the port to lockdown consumers.
“With the help of a huge volunteer corps, bundles of essential foodstuffs are being sent to the front doors of every household,” Haggard says.
Individuals and large groups have tried ordering food online to be delivered to their door, however successfully booking an order and ensuring a guaranteed delivery time remain a challenge.
“Delivery workers can't get to the warehouses and even if delivery workers pick up goods, they have to run a gauntlet of checks to get to the perimeters of the locked-down neighborhoods and buildings. Clearance times at the port for imported goods are slow because importers can't easily submit paperwork. It's difficult to secure drivers to pick up containers at the port and then to get those containers to the wholesale markets,” Haggard says.
Every box of imported cold chain products must be tested for the presence of COVID particles on packaging and go through a disinfection process.
Added quarantine checks, including the driver’s most recent COVID test results, inspection and disinfection paperwork, must be present if moving products out of Shanghai to neighboring areas.
“It's definitely a challenging situation right now, but we do remain optimistic that the current hurdles will be short lived,” Haggard says.
